Pages

Monday, October 29, 2012

Sights, sounds, smells...
How close to your video game action do you want to be?
What if the game can plug directly into your brain?

The Rasmussem Corporation wants players to be totally immersed in their role-playing games for hours at a time - for the proper fee.

But there is a time limit for staying in a virtual reality world, so unbreakable fail-safes pull players out of game before their brains get too detached from physical reality.

Unless a computer whiz like Emily entirely disables the fail-safes on purpose to trap herself in the pink and sparkly pre-teen gameworld she was helping design... and younger sister Grace must battle through to rescue her, before it's too late.

You'll find Deadly Pink in hardback now at your local library or independent bookstore, with author Vivian Vande Velde's earlier books featuring Rasmussem games (User Unfriendly and Heir Apparent) available in paperback.
So, how long would you want to stay in a virtual world? (dragons optional)
**kmm

My Recommendation: Grace is just slogging through high school, while her
brilliant older sister Emily is at college with full scholarships for computer
science. So why does Rasmussem Corporation need Grace’s help to get Emily out of a virtual
reality game?

Their mother is frantic with worry, Dad is away on business,
and the note Emily left behind sounds very, very final. Her body is there,
hooked up to the virtual reality game panel, but she’s disabled every fail-safe
that would allow the company to bring her back to the real world.

So away Grace goes, into the cotton-candy and unicorns world
that Emily’s team was developing for preteen girls. Butterflies that give gold
coins, quests to collect flower bouquets and tiaras, tea parties and fancy
dress balls – Emily wants to stay in little-princess land forever?

When Em ignores Grace during her first venture into the
game, it might be a fluke. But when big sister has her thrown out of the manor
house, Grace knows something is truly wrong. Wish-granting sprites with a
grudge, close calls with disaster – every time Grace reboots and re-enters the
game, something else goes haywire (and this is a game for kids?).

And the clock keeps ticking down, edging ever-closer to the
known-safe time limits for Emily’s brain to stay in virtual reality without a
break.

What’s so wrong in the real world that Em has to escape to
the virtual world that she helped create? What will happen to Emily’s brain if
they can’t get her out of the game in time? Can Grace convince her to come
home? (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.